The present invention relates to a low cost suspension assembly. In particular, the present invention relates to a one-piece integrated suspension assembly to provide mechanical and electrical connection between an actuator arm and a slider supporting a read/write head for a disc drive actuation assembly.
Generally, a magnetic disc drive includes a magnetic disc and a magnetic read/write head. When the disc rotates, the read/write head reads and writes magnetic signals on circular tracks of the disc. The read/write head is typically mounted on a slider, which is supported by a flexure or head gimbal assembly. The flexure is mounted to a suspension or load beam, which biases the slider toward the surface of the rotating disc. This biasing is sometimes referred to as “pre-loading”. The load beam is attached to an actuator arm of an actuator at an attachment plate, or base plate. The actuator arm moves the read/write head over the spinning disc during operation.
A typical prior art suspension assembly is comprised of four components, an attachment plate, a load beam, a flexure and an interconnect, including a flex circuit material and metal trace. One end of the load beam is attached to the actuator arm at the attachment place, oftentimes by swaging. A flexure is attached to an opposite end of the load beam, oftentimes with an adhesive and/or welding, and the slider is mounted to a bottom surface of the flexure. The interconnect is attached to bottom surfaces of the flexure, the load beam and the attachment plate to form an electrical connection path from the slider to the actuator arm. First, a flex circuit material is deposited upon the bottom surface of the suspension assembly, either the entire surface or a portion defining the interconnect path. Second, a metal trace is deposited upon the flex circuit material to provide the electrical connection between the slider and the actuator arm. The flex circuit material insulates the metal trace from the suspension assembly. Alternatively, a pre-fabricated interconnect is attached to the bottom surfaces of the suspension assembly.
Other prior art suspension assemblies include integrated components to improve performance by decreasing the number of suspension components, however, none include a low cost, one-piece, or single component, suspension assembly. For example, some suspension assemblies include an integrated load beam and flexure, an integrated flexure and interconnect, an integrated load beam, flexure and interconnect, or an integrated attachment plate, load beam and flexure. These suspension assemblies require extra assembly processes to complete the suspension assembly prior to attaching the assembly to the actuator arm or mounting the slider. Examples of extra assembly processes include, attaching the attachment plate to the load beam for connection to the actuator arm, attaching the load beam to the flexure and/or attaching the interconnect to the suspension assembly.
As the disc drive industry advances technologically, each element of the disc drive assembly is becoming increasingly integrated, and space and assembly costs are at a premium. It is desirable to integrate the components of the suspension assembly into a single piece to provide mechanical and electrical connections between the slider and the actuator arm and a simpler, less expensive suspension assembly.